injuries | Mama Cormier

Whether it’s photography, painting or stitching, I find comfort and solace

in the act of creating something beautiful. I needed that today and found it while teaching my grade five students how to make unique flags that depicted their favourite books from the Forest of Reading program. They were encouraged to think outside the box, be creative, experiment and love what they were making. Their creations are wonderful.

Some took my lead and tried some of the new techniques that I demonstrated and others were more thoughtful and careful in their approach. Children who are normally cautious and uncertain about their artistic ability created some of their best art today. It turned out to be a great stress reliever for me. I only wish it could have lasted the entire day.

I’ve brought the projects home for the weekend to stitch the casing on the sewing machine. I will take pictures of the ones that are finished or close to it and post them later.

….. advised to take it easy this weekend

My knee continues to give me grief. It’s definitely on the mend but it has been suggested that I give it a good rest before I start my walking/running again.

In my last post I wrote about how stress affects my weight. Despite walking a fair bit, going to yoga for 1 1/2 hours and eating well (1250 calories) I was up 1 1/2 pounds the next day. I’ve learned not to give in when this happens and I continued to make good food choices (even when I went out for dinner). This morning when I got on the scale I dropped 1 of those pounds.

It’s the start of the weekend and I want to do so much. My garden needs a little TLC, a few books are calling to be read and I’d love to find some new recipes to test out. Those are some of the fun things. Maybe getting on my bike won’t aggravate the knee. I’m already anxious about NOT exercising. Do you think I can forgo some of the ‘not so fun’ things, like housework and school work?

I’d love to do some painting and I don’t mean house painting (although some of that should be done as well).

Any words of advice are always greatly appreciated. TTFN

….. that nagging pain in the knee was back again today

It amazes me how much a little discomfort in your knee can affect your mood. I had a good night’s sleep but I was rushed this morning to get to soccer practice. Arriving a little late and then getting side tracked by my colleagues didn’t help. Most of the morning I spent on the field with students supervising the long jump so most of my planned lessons for the morning didn’t happen.

I think walking on the uneven grass for hours aggravated my knee. Every movement in the afternoon seemed like a chore. The worst part of my day though was trying to deal with all the planning and work that needs to be done in the next two weeks. I’m also the go to person when things go wrong with the computers in the school and when people need a sounding board.

So my biggest fear and nemesis on my weight loss journey is Stress and I’m about to experience a lot of it. Years ago I regularly visited a naturopathic doctor to give me advice on weight loss. After months of sessions my doctor concluded that all my significant weight gains over the years happened when I experienced a lot of stress, i.e. my mother’s death, dealing with a difficult principal, conflict with an angry colleague, my husband losing his job, etc.. I think you get the picture.

Tonight I could easily have backed out of going to yoga but I knew in my heart of hearts that it would do me a world of good. It did. I was able to completely relax and stretch out some tired muscles. Even my knee cooperated and it only complained once over one of tonight’s moves.

Sorry Frances, but no walk tonight. We’ll see how the knee feels tomorrow. No point in ‘stressing out’ about not walking. Besides I walked a lot of steps this morning on the field and I did just complete an hour and a quarter of yoga.

Cheers